Look up and you can see industrial buildings and smokestacks and, in the distance, the Tower of the Americas. Shift your eyes back down and you see ducks diving for their dinner, double-crested cormorants with their wings splayed to dry, dragonflies flitting among the grasses and wildflowers, and water tumbling merrily over rocks.

You can view it all from the path or from on the water: The restoration opens the river up to canoes and kayaks. Five and a half miles of paddling trail are open; by February 2014 all eight miles of the Mission Reach will be open to paddling. Bring your own canoe or kayak, or contact one of the San Antonio River Authority’s approved outfitters (sara-tx.org) to book a trip.

Or stay on land and rent a bicycle from B-cycle kiosks near the missions. You need a credit card to buy a 24-hour membership online or at the kiosk, but your first 30 minutes are free (return the bike to any kiosk) and each additional 30 minutes is just $2. With a bike and a few hours, you could easily make the rounds of the missions in a most pleasant manner.

New parks and interpretive areas have been built where the River Walk meets the missions. A four-mile unpaved hike-bike trail starts on the east bank of the river, across from Padre Park, about halfway between Mission San Jose and Mission San Juan Capistrano.

The Museum Reach section of River Walk, which opened in 2009, connected downtown to the Witte Museum and the San Antonio Zoo, to the north. With the opening of Mission Reach to the south, the city has put the river at the center of what is essentially a 15-mile-long park.

Each part of the River Walk has its own personality. Museum Reach is the arty part, adorned with installations such as Donald Lipski’s school of giant fish under Interstate 35, and Carlos Cortés’s Grotto. Downtown, the river is all dolled up for tourists. But Mission Reach is the river in its (nearly) natural state, inviting to humans and other species.

River taxis and tour boats service the downtown and part of the Museum Reach sections (riosanantonio.com).

Today, the Culinary Institute of America has its third campus in the country here, and Nao, a good-looking student-run restaurant serving Latin American cuisine.

Established chefs are also setting up shop: Jesse Perez has Arcade Midtown Kitchen; brothers Timothy and Alex Rattray serve barbecue at The Granary; and Andrew Weissman has opened Sandbar Fish House & Market.

The Boiler House Texas Grill & Wine Garden is in the actual boiler house that powered the brewery, and the building’s restoration respects and reflects that.

The brewery building itself is being converted into an 88-room Kimpton hotel, designed by Roman & William, known for the hipster-licious style of Ace Hotels, and scheduled to open in 2014.

Retail is an interesting boutique-y mix, including The Twig Book Shop and Dos Carolinas, where you can order a custom-made guayabera. The district also includes offices, residences and event space in the grand elliptical Victorian stable that once housed draught horses.

The best time to visit The Pearl is Saturday morning, when a lively farmers market attracts crowds and purveyors of artisan foodstuffs (“Farm eggs from pampered hens,” one booth boasts.) Or plan on catching an event such as an annual tamale festival (Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. this year) or a music festival or, in summertime, free films at the Pearl Park Amphitheater by the river. There’s life in the old brewery yet.

The Museum Reach River of Lights kicks off Friday and Saturday with events at the Pearl. A 1.3-mile stretch of the river will have underwater lights, lights in the water features, rope lighting stretching across the river and more, through Jan. 3. sara-tx.org

The downtown section of the river will be lined with luminarias Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings Dec. 6 through Dec. 22. For more holiday events, check visitsanantonio.com.